ABSTRACT
The origin and development of gay villages up to the 1990s represented something new under the sun (in the UK at least), with (amongst others) the notable development of Old Compton Street in the West End of London, Manchester's gay village and a 'gay district' in Birmingham city centre. The clustering of gay venues into specific districts of the city is, of course, nothing new in the UK - for instance see the development of the 1970s Earl's Court gay scene in London discussed in Jonathan Raban's Soft City (1974). Gay villages have existed in the sense that gay districts within cities have existed for decades. However, what was new in the 1990s was the making visible of such spaces within the mainstream media. In cities such as Manchester, UK, these are even being actively promoted in order to produce meaningful liveable cities and to contribute towards a cosmopolitan or European mode of urban experience (Binnie and Skeggs, 1999). But can every city have its gay quarter? Such a vision suggests the homogenization of gay identity and space. In this essay I argue that strategies to promote gay villages face a number of obstacles, as evidenced by problems associated with and conflicts within existing gay villages.
